D-B makes quick work of Gate City

KINGSPORT — It seemed to take forever for Dobyns-Bennett and Gate City baseball to finally get together. It only took Indians pitcher A.J. Anderson 49 pitches to get it over with. Anderson gave up one hit, one walk and struck out three as the Tribe took down the Blue Devils 11-0 in five innings on the turf at J. Fred Johnson Stadium Wednesday. Raindrops pelted the field as the first pitch flew at 5 p.m. But it was neither strong enough nor lasted long enough to warrant bumping it down the road one more day. “It was a good win for us. A quick game, probably a little quicker than I wanted since we’ve lost a few games. We might’ve wanted to see another arm or two,” said D-B coach Ryan Wagner, whose team had an 8-0 lead after two innings. Anderson (3-0) gave up the lone hit to Blue Devils lead-off man Cory Franklin in the first inning. The walk was issued to Michael Collier in the second. Otherwise, it was nothing but figurative blue skies for Anderson, who was perfect in the third, fourth and fifth frames. “I just felt good today. I felt good from the beginning when I was warming up,” said Anderson, who hadn’t pitched for two weeks. “My arm was ready to throw.” Thanks to the support he got from his teammates on the field and at the plate, Anderson threw strikes with an untroubled mind.Austin Dayton was D-B’s offensive poster child with a solo home run in the first inning and a grand slam in the second. Both shots sailed over left. The first was off Blue Devils starter Robert Puckett (0-1). The slam was off reliever Brandon Baskette.For complete coverage of the game see the April 25 edition of the Times-News.